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We have five players: Britain, France (2Gaulle a beta tester), Prussia, Austria and Spain. We are on turn 10. I am playing Austria and unlikliest of unlikelies...I have the highest glory (by a bit) at 91, although I don't expect it to last. The vs human game is much more fun than against the AI, absoultuely no question. The trade-off is, of course, that you don't have to wait days for the AI to respond to the turn.

Militarily, Austria begins the the 1796 campaign at war with France and in a bad position. 4 armies are spread in a cordon-like fashion from Italy to Belgium. None of the armies have any commanders attached. With low or no initiative, they are sitting ducks for the French armies which oppose them.

The initial plan was to get them out of the way - all were set to force march to improve initiative and I used the avoid battle button. The 2 northern armies I set to move deeper into Bavaria. The Piedmont army I moved into Switzerland, believing that the French would not make a move there. For the Austrian army in Genoa (Spanish owned)...I forgot about the "violate territory" bug...for three turns.

My short-term strategic plans hinged on the French maintaining one of their armies for homeland defense against any British incursions via Hanover or the sea. If I could concentrate my forces then I might be able to catch one of their armies alone in Bavaria. That is, if I could avoid any initial, devastating battles.

The plan worked and it didn't work. All armies avoided battle, including the Piedmont army which narrowly escaped the predicatable French incursion. The northern armies escaped as well but only because the French did not go after them. The French not only sent Bonaparte's army of Italy into Piedmont, but performed a massive southward manuever. Their army of the Alps joined Bonaparte in Piedmont with the large Army of the Rhine moving into Milan. The Army of the Sambre Muese took its place along the Rhine. Piedmont and Milan were under siege, however, all Austria's armies were intact and were about to receive leadership.

Development: I believed that in the coming months my morale would be in for considerable duress so started building several cultural improvements.

Diplomatically: Russia is computer controlled. I set about improving my relations with them with the hope of an eventual treaty. Britain, bless King George, committed to putting pressure on Holland shortly.

Turns two through five go a bit nutty in our game. The reason was that each of the human players - each wanting to control their own trade and diplomatic decisions - did not touch our settings in the policy screens. We assumed that if we did not have our experts turned on, then we could. You read the manual and tell me if it's clear about policy settings and PBEM. (Other PBEM games had the same issues).

Anyway it was a bad assumption to make. Prussia invaded Saxony which then became a protectorate of mine, Austria that is. Not something I wanted to see happen with the French rampaging through Northern Italy. Sweden attacked Denmark, which became a protectorate of mine, Austria that is. Not something...well you get the story. It took us a few turns to figure out what was going on and to remedy the situation.

The French were besieging Piedmont and Milan and throwing ever more forces into Northern Italy, apparently unconcerned about a possible British threat or that Prussia might join the war against them. After a couple of turns, it was also apparent that the French strategy was to conquer provinces and not to go after my armies. While they sieged Piedmont and Milan, my weak, immobile army in Genoa (see above post) sat unmolested. My other armies had complete freedom of movement although I could see that he was attempting to use his diplomats to find my forces.

My plan was to play keep away for a few turns, not lose too much national morale and preserve my inferior armies until the right possible moment. To obtain a right possible moment I wanted to use the Army of Observation, sitting deep within Austria proper, to swing through Bohemia, the minor German states and into Holland where it would join with the British. Hopefully that action would serve to draw some French forces from Northern Italy and I could use my 1st and 2nd armies, which were now out of his LOS, via the Tyrol in combination with the 3rd army to gang up on the French. To add to the manuever I moved the Army of Piedmont, a force of mine that was in his LOS - sitting in Switzerland - north.

That was the plan. Unfortunately the Army of Observation, brillantly sneaking through Saxony, ran headlong into a Prussian army, with whom I was at war (we thought a ceasefire would have solved our problems). Run awaaaay. National morale hit. Further, the Danish forces now under my unwilling control on both land and sea were no match for Sweden. Big national morale hits for the HRE. It took two turns for me just to find all the Danish ships. And instead of diplomatically finessing Russia, I was trying to resovle my wars with Prussia and Sweden.

The irony is that I as moved the 1st, 2nd and 3rd armies into threatening positions in the mountains of Switzerland and Tyrol, by turn 4 France had poured all of his armies into Northern Italy, even his Army of Batavia had moved into a supporting posistion along the Rhine. Britain began a siege of Friesland and my Armies of Observation and Piedmont had still not joined them (so the siege of Friesland was still not much of a threat to France).

Yet I still had relatively unscathed armies (Prussia returned my prisoners when we sorted out the policy screen) and France was totally committed to the Italian theatre, not behaving aggressively and seemingly unconcerned about Britain and a potential Prussian threat.